Nancy Amidei has developed a standard of behavior she calls "Decency Principles." She tries to use it when she conducts business with anyone. She hopes that others will do the same.
Under her standard, an employer passes the test if he pays his workers enough that by working full time they earn at least the national poverty level, if he provides a health-care benefit package and if he works to make affordable housing available.If an employer doesn't do these things, she conducts her business elsewhere. She thinks others, including businesses and even cities and counties, should do the same.
"A city should be able to say, `No thank you. We don't need to give you exemptions, etc., if you're in the business of keeping women and children poor,' " she said, during a lecture at the University of Utah.
Amidei recently completed her stint as the Belle Spafford scholar at the university's Graduate School of Social Work, a post she will hold next year as well. This year, she worked with graduate students to study the "feminization of poverty" in Utah.
That phrase means, simply, that an increasing number of families living in poverty are headed by women. And that households headed by women face a fair chance of living at or below the poverty level.
Students set out to update a study on female-headed families and poverty that was written a decade ago from the national perspective. They wanted to see what the situation is today in Utah. It's not a very happy picture.
In 1970, the portion of poor families headed by women in Utah was 29 percent. In 1989, the number had risen to 35.9 percent, with no indication the trend will slow down. The news is bad, in part, because although a large portion of women work, they average 54 cents salary to the typical man's dollar. They also have the bulk of the child-care responsibility, and the two factors create what she calls a "double whammy."
Many of the low-paying jobs that women take offer no health-care benefits, so with housing costs and lack of affordable child care, women are more likely to become poor. And when they do, they tend to stay poor.
Only 5 percent of families headed by men were poor in 1981. The number was five times higher for those headed by women in Utah. But contrary to popular belief, divorce and separation couldn't be blamed, she said. Many of the families were already poor before they became single-parent families. They just couldn't escape it afterward. Children account for about 40 percent of the poor population.
Divorce certainly doesn't help a woman-headed family. Typically, a man's income increases by 42 percent one year after divorce. A woman's drops 43 percent.
Utah's divorce rate closely mirrors the nation's. The out-of-wedlock births are lower, but they have grown tremendously in number in the past 20 years. The rate of births to unwed teens is rising "substantially faster" than the nation as a whole. And one predictor of poverty is the age of a woman when she has her first child.
These women are stranded in a land that has been called the Pink Ghetto. They work but have no benefits. They can't live on their salaries. They also know that welfare isn't the answer.
"To be on welfare in Utah is to stay poor," Amidei said. A grant is about 42 percent of the poverty line. Combined with a full food stamp allotment, it is 70 percent of poverty.
If a woman wants to work, she must find adequate and affordable child care. For many women, that makes getting off welfare impossible. If a woman has an infant or a child with a disability, she may be sunk before she tries.
Lack of health care keeps a lot of women on the system. The Medicaid card offers some medical protection to poor, vulnerable families.
There are myths surrounding welfare. Some believe "welfare moms" get cheap rent. Only 10 percent have subsidized housing. Poor families can't afford deposits. About 2,500 apartments and low-income housing units closed in the last few years. Most of the 2,000 housing units demolished during the '80s were in low-income neighborhoods. Most of the new construction was in high-income neighborhoods. At a given time, 4,300 families are in danger of becoming homeless in the immediate future.
Others believe that women keep having babies to stay on welfare. In fact, the largest welfare group is made up of mothers who have only one child. Next largest is two children. The one- or two-child families account for 70 percent of welfare families.
Amidei believes that society has to admit that "welfare is neither addictive nor illegal."
People seem to want to help the child but not the mother, which can't be done. Instead, she said, we have got to change our attitudes. Then we have to put the bandages away and start looking to prevention.